JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) will focus on the development of small and medium-scaled firms and cooperatives through 1998, chairman Aburizal Bakrie says.
Aburizal, after meeting with President Soeharto yesterday, said Kadin will help small and medium-scaled firms and cooperatives take a higher profile in the country's conglomerate dominated economy.
Aburizal met with the President yesterday to introduce the new central executive board of Kadin, which was selected early this year.
Aburizal was accompanied by Vice Presidents Husein Aminuddin in charge of Trade and International Relations; Adi Putra Taher in charge of Organization and Membership, Funds and Facilities; Agus Sudono in charge of Human Resources Affairs; Dewi Motik Pramono in charge of Environmental Affairs; Agus Kartasasmita in charge of Construction Services and Real Estate Affairs and Chairman of Kadin's Advisory Board A.A. Baramuli.
According to Aburizal, two seminars, which will be held here on Wednesday and April 28, are expected to provide input for the government and the banking system on ways to manage small and medium-scale companies and cooperatives.
"Kadin has also proposed fa reduction in the minimum amount of assets owned by companies to qualify for selling shares on the over-the counter market from Rp 1 billion (US$465,549 million) to Rp 500 million," he said.
Aburizal said this proposal was meant to help enable small and medium firms to raise equity capital from the public.
Congress
He said that Kadin will also host the 21st International Small Business Congress scheduled for September, involving about 1,000 participants from more than 80 industrial and developing countries.
Other international events Kadin plans to carry out include the sending of trade and investment missions to countries in South East Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and to Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.
According to him, Kadin will also actively take part in business forums in regional and international organizations such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Non- aligned Movement (NAM) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.
In response to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) recently signed by the trade ministers of more than 120 countries, he said Kadin was currently studying new products which could be sold on the international market.
"We will further improve the efficiency of our production and distribution in order to strengthen our competitive edge," he explained.
He added that toughest competitors for Indonesia in the export market are countries such as Vietnam, China and India.
With regard to the workers' strikes which have lately occurred in Medan demanding for the doubling of the minimum regional wage of Rp 3,100 ($1.44) to Rp 7,000 per day, Aburizal claimed the demand was too high to be fulfilled.
"Company managers may already have the intention to increase their workers' pay, but they may think twice if the demands are too high," he said. (10)